Johnson City Executive Apartments aka Chilhowie Executive Apartments review: Owner/landlord rented to a disabled person under false pretenses, causing a health and safety hazard, and is refusing to refund.

I urge anyone to be extremely cautious when dealing with this business and the owner Pete Nickels. Here are the facts and you can decide for yourself:
Pete Nickels convinced me to rent, for 3 months, an apartment in his building by telling me erroneous and misleading information about the building and the apartment. He stated that the apartment was "on the first floor" and that there were "a few stairs" leading to the apartment. In reality, the apartment he rented me is on the second floor (according to every commonly accepted and dictionary definition of first and second floors) and there are a total of 23 stairs to reach it. The building is also 110 years old and the stairs are steep, narrow and carpeted.
This created a very serious problem, and safety and health hazard, for me as I am a senior woman and disabled by significant systemic osteoarthritis, including bone-on-bone arthritis in both knees. I do walk for short distances with a cane or walking pole. But I do everything I can to avoid stairs. I am also single and a solo traveler. I have a pre-written statement in my computer about my disabilities and specific limitations, which states that "I CANNOT do stairs." I provide some version of that statement to everyone from whom I am hoping to rent, whether that is an apartment, Airbnb or hotel room. So Pete Nickels was well informed about my disability and need to avoid stairs before he rented to me. I also discussed it with him again by phone on July 20th, when he informed me that the apartment was "on the first floor…" and had… "a few stairs to get to it."
Of course when I arrived and saw the stairs I should not have rented the apartment. But at that moment I had no other feasible options. Pete Nickels knew that I was desperate. I had been in Mexico for a year and it was time to return to Johnson City. But the housing market had gone crazy while I was out of the country and I had been searching for 3 months for a place to stay. I could not afford a hotel for any length of time and did not know where else to turn.
Pete Nickels also charged me an additional $647.00 for 16 days of rent in August, even though I could not arrive and move in until September 2nd. He stated that the apartment would be vacant as of August 15th, and that another tenant was interested in moving in. So if I wanted him to hold the apartment for me I had to pay for the 2 weeks it would be vacant. Because I believed I would be living there for at least 3 months, and had no other options, I agreed to pay. Although I will never know the facts, I now wonder if there really was another interested tenant. If there was, why would he rent to someone with a disability?
Within a week of using the stairs, my chronic pain level had doubled. And I became extremely anxious, because I could feel the permanent damage being done to my knees each time I used the 23 stairs. I also felt trapped in the apartment as I was afraid to go down and up more than one time a day, due to the damage being done to my knees. Although it was a financial hardship, I had to move out after one month, because I was in extreme pain from using the stairs. I made that move in an ethical manner and Pete Nickels informed me he had another tenant waiting to move in the next day. So he did not have any loss of income from my move.
But, although he rented an unsafe apartment to a disabled person under false pretenses, Pete Nickels is now refusing to return to me the $647.00 he charged me for "holding" the apartment. Instead he has sent me emails and letters blaming the victim, stating that I am "unprofessional" (I'm retired, as he knew, and was not renting as a professional) and that "...in life Karma will get ya!"